International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013

ISSN 2229-5518
425

Estimating Parameters of a Three-Phase

induction motor using Matlab/Simulink
K.K.Pandey*, P. H. Zope**
*SSJCOE, Dombivli *krrish.pp@gmail.com
**SSBT’s COET Bambhori, Jalgaon **phzope@gmail.com

Abstract-Steady-state analysis of a three phase induction motor can be carried out by using computer simulation software such as
MATLAB. From Simulink/Power system block set (PSB) library, the induction motor model can be effectively used to simulate the
effects of DC resistance, no-load and blocked rotor tests. These tests are performed on a machine to estimate the values of stator
and rotor resistances and leakage reactance’s. Since the skin effect and temperature are not taken into consideration with DC
resistance modeling but still the results derived are approximate and reasonably good.

Index term-Induction motor, DC resistance test, no-load test, blocked rotor test, modeling of induction motor.

1. INTRODUCTION

Since its invention by Nicola Tesla in 1800s, induction

motor has remained as the most popular electrical
machine due to its simple and rugged construction.

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Though they are considered as a low-maintenance
machine, sudden failures can be catastrophic.
Scientific tests performed in field, to study machine
behavior and estimate faults, have proven costly, Fig 1 Electrical equivalent circuit of induction motor
owing to time required, and involvement of heavy
and costly test set-ups and measuring instruments. Core loss resistance is included to account for
Also they impose a limitation on the time duration [9] hysteresis and eddy currents as a function of
, the test can be performed in field. Simulation tools frequency.
such as MATLAB can be a cost-effective approach, to
estimate machine parameters. 2. DC RESISTANCE TEST
This paper models a three phase induction motor
to derive its parameters based on the magnetically-
The simplest element to be determined is the stator
coupled model of the machine. Tests such as DC
resistance. It can be measured using an ohmmeter
resistance, no-load, blocked-rotor tests can be
after examining the motor terminal block connections
effectively modeled using MATLAB to derive
Fig (2).[10]
resistance and inductance of the machine for motor
diagnosis and analysis.
Similar to other electrical machines, an electrical
equivalent model can be represented for an induction
motor Fig (1). In fact, an induction motor can be
treated as a rotating transformer in which primary
winding is stationary and the secondary winding is
free to rotate. This represents the per phase
equivalent circuit of an induction motor as
recommended by IEEE

R1- Stator resistance

X1- Stator leakage reactance
Xo- Magnetizing reactance Fig 2 Resistance test on motor terminal block
Ro- Machine core loss resistance
X2- Rotor leakage reactance This test is carried out on an isolated motor, to check
R2- Rotor resistance the resistance of stator windings. To make an accurate
s- Slip measurement, either a low reading Ohmmeter or a

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013
ISSN 2229-5518
Fig 3 Set-up for measurement of stator resistance
high resolution DMM is used.
Step 1: Isolate the motor electrically and if necessary
mechanically.
Step 2: Identify the way the motor block is connected.
• Star connected: Two links connect U2-V2-W2.
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Remove the links and supply cables before
carrying out the test.
• Delta connected: Three links connect U1
toW2, V1 to U2, W1 to V2. Remove the links
and supply cables before carrying out the
test.
However for larger machines it is measured using dc
source, so that it can be determined at rated value of
current. Under dc condition the leakage reactance
offered by stator winding is zero; hence stator
equivalent circuit for dc condition can be represented
as shown in Fig (4)
Fig 4 Stator equivalent circuit for DC test
Fig (3) shows an experimental set up of the dc test
conducted at the interconnected power system
laboratory (IPSL) of Drexel University. A 120-V dc
power source is connected across the two phases of a
Y-connected induction motor. A group of light bulbs
are installed as resistive loads in order to adjust dc
current to the rated value. The values of Idc and Vdc
are recorded and R1 is computed as[1];
R1 = 0.5 Vdc/ Idc
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426
Simulink/PSB model for implementing DC resistance
test is shown in Fig (6). The stator resistance
calculated from DC test is an approximated value
since skin effects and temperature are not considered,
that are produced due to an ac supply. However this
approximation is quiet reasonable.
3. NO LOAD TEST
When an induction motor runs at no load, the slip is
exceedingly small. This means that R2/s is very high
and so current in rotor winding is negligible
compared to the magnetizing current. At no load, the
equivalent circuit of an induction motor consists of
magnetizing branch Xm. This value can be
determined by measuring voltage, current and power
at no load. No load test is carried out by running the
motor at rated line-to-line voltage and measuring the
values of no load current and total 3Φ active power.
Since at no load the magnetizing component is
shunted by a very high resistive branch representing
the rotor circuit, the reactance of this parallel
combination is almost same as Xm. Therefore total
reactance XNL measured at no load at the stator
terminals is essentially X1+Xm. The equivalent circuit
at no load is shown in fig (5).
Fig 5 Equivalent circuit for no-load
(1)
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013
ISSN 2229-5518
427

Fig 6 Simulink model for DC resistance test

IJSER Fig 7 Set-up for no load test

The phase voltage can be calculated as; Where XNL= X1+Xm (6)

V1 =
/√3 (2) Thus from no load test we get values of X1+Xm.

Experimental set-up for no load test is shown in Fig
No load impedance per phase will be (7). There are some differences between hardware set-
up and Simulink model represented in Fig (8). In
ZNL = V1/I1 (3) experimental set-up the total 3H real input power is
measured, while per-phase-based real and reactive
No load resistance is; power is measured in simulation model. However
this difference is not significant since under the three-
RNL = PNL /3I12 (4) phase balanced operation, computations are usually
performed using phase quantities. Hence phase
No load reactance is; quantities are measured in simulation model, as
opposed to line-to-line voltage measured in hardware
XNL = ²
² (5) set-up.
In simulation [4], voltage per phase is calculated and

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013
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428

IJSER Fig 8 Simulink model for no load test

applied to the model. To simulate the model for no

load test, mechanical torque (Tm) is set to zero. The
4. BLOCKED ROTOR TEST

equivalent circuit parameters obtained from In the blocked rotor test, the rotor is blocked from
experimental data are specified in the machine rotating; therefore mechanical speed of the rotor is
dialogue box. Current measurement blocks are zero. The value of slip for blocked rotor test is unity
connected to each phase, which measure the since rotor is stationary; therefore R2/s becomes very
instantaneous values of alternating quantity. These small. Thus, the rotor current is much larger than
values are not suitable for display; hence it is current in the excitation branch of the circuit such that
necessary to obtain rms values of these quantities. excitation branch can be neglected. The resulting
This is done by connecting a signal rms block before equivalent circuit for blocked rotor test is shown in
each display box. The outputs of current and voltage Fig (9).
measurement blocks are connected to a power
measurement block, which calculates the active and
reactive power. A large number of machine
parameters can be measured using the machine
measurement block. Here it is modeled to display the
mechanical speed of the machine in rad/s. It is found
that the mechanical display box gives a steady-state
value quickly, which means that MATLAB can be
used to model steady-state behavior of induction
motor as well. Fig 9 Equivalent circuit for blocked rotor test

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013
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from the dissipated power as;

PBR = 3IBR2 (R1+R2)

Fig 10 Simulink model for blocked rotor test

The reflected rotor winding resistance is determined

(7)
determined from the blocked rotor test. Given the
values of X1, magnetizing reactance Xm can be

calculated as ;

Xm = XNL-X1 (10)
Ratio of blocked rotor voltage and current equals the
blocked rotor impedance; = (² − ²) - X1 (11)

VBR/IBR = ZBR = ( 1 + 2² + (1 + 2)² ) (8) The simulink model for blocked rotor test is same as
that for the no load test, but however the input
Therefore X1+X2 can be computed. voltage is not equal to phase voltage. The value of
The actual distribution of total leakage reactance input voltage is adjusted such that the current display
between the stator and rotor is typically unknown but records the rated phase current. To make the
empirical equations for different classes of motor as mechanical speed of rotor to 0 rad/s, inertia of the
specified by NEMA can be used to determine values machine is set to infinity in the machine dialogue box
of X1 and X2 independently. [4]. In blocked rotor test, the mechanical torque is no
longer 0; its value used for the model is set to 5 N-m.
Squirrel cage NEMA Std For electrical parameters of the machine, entered in
the machine dialogue box, the values of active and
Class A X1= 0.5 XBR reactive powers are computed.
Class B X1=0.4 XBR
Class C X1=0.3 XBR 5. CONCLUSION
Class D X1=0.5 XBR
Similar to other electrical machines, an induction
Using these empirical formulas X1 and X2 can be motor can also be represented using an electrical

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013
ISSN 2229-5518
430

TABLE I

Iph(A ) Vph(V) P (W) Q (VA) cosФ X1(Ω) X2 (Ω) Xm (Ω) R1(Ω) R2(Ω)
No- 1.823 120 15.32 218.2 0.0702 ____ ____ _____ _____ _____
load
Blocked 8.012 31.25 115.7 222.1 0.5209 1.729 1.729 63.93 1.34 0.462
rotor
test

equivalent circuit consisting of resistances and References

leakage reactances. These elements can be calculated
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test. In hardware experiments, the input voltage
applied to the machine is specified in terms of line-to-
line voltage and the value of total (i.e. 3Φ) real power
is calculated to compute values of R1, R2, X1, X2 and
Xm. In simulating models, we consider the voltages in
terms of phase quantities and the values of per-phase
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013
ISSN 2229-5518
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